Assuming all the important things in life are in place — your family, a home, a job — the list of things you actually need isn’t very long. I don’t need a super-surround sound entertainment system, or six-piece electric drum kit with optional tambourine function, and I’m sure I’d get by without a 10-seat leather sofa wrapped in duck-egg-blue ostrich hide. By the same token, I don’t need a Porsche 911. But I’d do pretty well anything to get one.

When it comes to Porsche 911s, I’ve always been a Carrera 2 girl. There is something about the two-wheel-drive version of the car that just seems right. But perhaps the latest-generation Targa, which is available only with four-wheel drive, could prove me wrong. I’m very fussy, though, particularly when £71,443 is at stake.

The Targa is the last of the 911 model line-up to be given the new-generation genetics, which amount more to internal changes than external. Certainly at first glance there is little to differentiate this Targa from its predecessor.

In fact, discretion was clearly the designer’s brief — his brush strokes have barely blown one degree of extra curve across the snout and tail. The Targa shares its coupé body with the all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 and 4S, with wider hips than the rear-wheel-drive 911s. And actually, I’m really pleased the shape hasn’t evolved too much because its simple arcs aren’t just good to look at, they are also a pleasure to lather up. No other car has me reaching so keenly for the chamois.

The Targa’s telltale trimming along its roofline remains exclusive to it. This is a good thing because the metallic trim is an easy target in a game of motorway I-spy. And with 14 variations of the 911 currently on sale, status-garnish such as this is very important to Porsche owners.

Even if you can recognise it, the chances of you actually seeing one on the road are small. Last year 2,777 911s were sold in the UK; just 190 were Targas. And this means that while I know I’m about to experience the motoring equivalent of a Michelin star every time I slip behind the wheel of a 911, slipping into the Targa is even more of a tasty treat.

The name itself isn’t derived from some obscure weather phenomenon or ancient Roman empress, but from a Sicilian road race in which Porsche once competed, and it’s also Italian for “shield”. It’s a darn sight sexier than “glass roof”, which is what it would have been called had it been built in the West Midlands. Or “the best way to see bird poop”, as a colleague observed.

I’m sure it’s also a massive hit with lorry drivers, thanks to the 1.54 sq metre window cum roof through which they can admire not just the car’s curves. The only glare this glass can deflect is from the sun.

And it’s this bit of the car that makes the Targa a Targa — it may look like a coupé but it can act more like a cabriolet once the roof is open, welcoming the elements in, but keeping the wind out. Leave the blow-dry to the cabriolet, with its barnet-bashing credentials and frumpy shape.

In a mere seven seconds the Targa’s top, complete with sun blind, glides backwards so gracefully that it can mesmerise a hypnotist. It’s a visual delight of engineering.

There are some problems, though: when the two-piece roof finally tucks itself beneath the tailgate, it obscures your view when reversing. This will force most buyers to order the £300 ParkAssist option to “beep” you backwards. Clever, this, because of course, it’ll be just one of the thousands of extras Porsche knows you’ll run out of ink ticking.

The roof may be exclusive to the Targa, but the engines aren’t. It comes with both the new 911’s flat-six engines — a 3.6-litre and 3.8-litre — which have more power and fewer emissions than before.